Monday, August 19, 2013

Example of 'Finite capacity' on Resources in AX 2012

In this post the we will look at behavior of 'Finite capacity' check box on 'Resources' form. We will create two new resources one with finite capacity and another without it. We will then assign these resources to the route operations one for each resource, and assign run time to them. We will create production orders and schedule them to see the effect on the resources' capacity reservations.

  1. Create two new resources.

  1. Resource: #0001, Finite capacity: Unchecked


  1. Resource: #0002, Finite capacity: Checked



  1. Create a route with two operations assigning run time of 8 hours and 4 hours respectively.



  1. Assign first resource to first operation and second resource to the second operation in the resource requirements section.



  1. Assign the route to a production item.

  1. Now create two production orders, run 'Estimate' and then run 'Schedule jobs' for each of them. Make sure it is run on same date (E.g. today's date)



  1. For both resources click 'Capacity load' button.


For first resource having finite capacity unchecked note that the scheduling engine has reserved the 8 hours run time  for both the production orders (operation 10) on the same date and hence overbooked the 8 hour capacity of one day which is defined in the standard calendar assigned to the resources.


For the second resource having finite capacity checked note that the scheduling engine hasn't overbooked the capacity, rather it has reserved the next available 8 hours (next day in this case) because of the finite capacity.




Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Capable to Promise (CTP) in AX 2012

Capable-to-promise (CTP) logic generally applies to make-to-order items, and automatically results in the assignment of a delivery date to a sales order line item. CTP logic considers components’ on-hand inventories and their lead times to suggest a promised delivery date. For example, when no component inventory exists, the promised delivery date reflects the item’s cumulative manufacturing lead time.

The CTP logic is conceptually similar to the explosion logic for a sales line. The Explosion logic must be manually invoked for a line item, and involves several steps to correctly calculate and update the promised delivery date on a sales line.

In this post we will look what is behind the CTP calculation and how it shows the calculated date on sales order at the time of order entry. We will use a production item having route and BOM associated with it.

Prerequisites and Setup:

First of all the Master planning should be enabled in AX.

A dynamic master plan must be setup.


A coverage group with must be setup with future messages enabled and should be assigned to item or master planning parameters.


The dynamics master plan must be selected in the master planning parameters.


Create new item with 'BOM' production type.


Select 'Production' in 'Default order type' on 'Default order settings' form.


Select 'CTP' in 'Delivery date control' on 'Sales order' tab of 'Default order settings' form.
Make sure the 'Sales lead time' is 0 days.


Create new resource and assign Standard (8 hour) calendar to it.


Create new route for the item.
Add one operation having 48 hours 'Run time'.
Select the newly created resource in the resource requirement for the operation, and check only 'Operation scheduling'.
Approve and activate the route.


Create new BOM for the item.
Add one item in the BOM lines.
Approve and activate the BOM.


CTP Calculation:

Create new sales order and select the newly created item (#Item-CTP) in the line.


Press 'Ctrl+S', this will open the 'Available ship and receipt dates' form


Note that the system provides a message that the requested ship date 8/13/2013 (today's date)cannot be promised and asks to select one of the alternative dates listed. System shows warning signs on 6 days. This is due to the 48 hours of process time for the operation set on the route for this item and since standard (8 hour working day) calendar was set on the resource associated with the operation, this makes 6 working days.

Select any date after the warning days and click 'Update confirmed ship date' button. This will populate the confirmed dates on the sales order line.


The 'Available ship and receipt dates' form can also be opened from line details.